Larger Wildeurasian variants

Introduction

My 10-Chess contest entry Wildeurasian Qi extended Wildebeest Chess to include Chinese-style Hopping pieces in the same pattern of 2 each of a colourbound and non-colourbound pair of duals plus one of their compound, with a Chinese-style River. It occurred to me that I could extend this further, in variants not restricted to complying with a contest. I began by adding an extra rim of cells around the board to accommodate new pieces and easing the River restrictions in a new way.

Two new groups of pieces occurred to me. A still-larger board suggested longer leapers. The Zebra and Giraffe are well-established, and on a 12x12 board their duals would have cells from which they could make all 8 moves. There is also the interesting contrast that the Zebra is close-to-diagonal with a close-to-orthogonal colourbound dual, and the Giraffe vice versa, which influenced my image choices. So introducing those leapers was one possibility, which I name WILDEURASIAN BESTIARY in allusion to the animal names. Another was a sort of pun analogue, like enharmonic changes in music. A characteristic of northeast Asia's standard games is one kind of orthogonal piece at the corners (as in most standard games) but another kind next in diagonally - a forward-only piece and the familiar Rook in Shogi and the Rook and Cannon in Xiang Qi and Janggi. The first pair are inherited in my Mitregi, and the second in Wildeurasian Qi. It is an obvious extension to combine the two into a WILDEURASIAN MITREGI with all three types of orthogonal piece along the long diagonals.

Tying in with this was the idea of keeping the position of the Wildeurasian pieces relative to the board, and the spaces between them, and putting new pieces on the back rank. In Wildeureasian Mitregi this leaves corner pieces en prise to each other, but as they are protected by Knights this should not matter. I envisage the Wildeurasian pieces being represented by the same two FIDE sets distinguishable by size as in Wildeurasian Qi and the extra ones by Shogi pieces - in one case because they are forward-only and inherit Shogi promotion and reintroduction rules, and in the other because they are "lightweight" in being able to leap such distances!

One further extension of this idea is a DENSE-RIM WILDEURASIAN MITREGI including a sixth set of five based on forward-only Hopping pieces, but that requires additional physical pieces, perhaps Xiang Qi ones in allusion to that being the introducer of Hopping pieces!

Setup

Pieces

Wildeurasian pieces, common to all variants:

The KING moves one step in any radial direction and must be kept out of Check and Bare Facing.

The PAWN moves one step forward at a time, diagonally if capturing otherwise orthogonally. The eight Pawns aside are represented by Pawns from the small set. Pawns can form chains on their own side of the River, but after crossing it a Pawn becomes a Wazir.

The WAZIR moves one step in any orthogonal direction, and is a promotee only. There can be up to eight Wazirs aside, and while the full complement is unlikely you may well have three or more at a time.

+=

The ROOK moves any distance through empty intermediate cells in any of the 4 orthogonal directions, and the BISHOP does likewise in the 4 diagonal directions. The QUEEN is the compound of these two, moving in all 8 directions.

+=

The KNIGHT leaps to any of the 8 cells 2:1 away from it, and the CAMEL to any of the 8 cells 3:1 away from it. The GNU is the compound of these two and can leap to all 16 cells. None of these pieces can be blocked.

+=

The CANNON differs from the Rook, the ARROW from the Bishop, and their compound the TANK from the Queen, in that capturing moves (or in a Korean-style version all moves) require exactly one intervening piece, which is of either army and not itself captured.

Longer leapers, used only in WEA Bestiary:

+=

The ZEBRA leaps to any of the 8 cells 3:2 away from it, and the ZEMEL to any of the 8 cells 5:1 away from it. The ZEBU is the compound of these two and can leap to all 16 cells. None of these pieces can be blocked.

+=

The GIRAFFE leaps to any of the 8 cells 4:1 away from it, and the GIMEL to any of the 8 cells 5:3 away from it. The GURU is the compound of these two and can leap to all 16 cells. None of these pieces can be blocked.

Forward-only pieces, used in WEA Mitregi and DR WEA Mitregi:

+=

The WING moves any distance through empty intermediate cells along the forward orthogonal, and the MITRE does likewise along both forward diagonals. The PRINCESS is the compound of these two, moving in all 3 directions.

+=

The HELM leaps to either cell two ranks ahead on a neighbouring file, and the HUMP to either three ranks ahead on a neighbouriong file. The HANDYMAN is the compound of these two and can leap to all 4 cells. None of these pieces can be blocked.

Further forward-only pieces, used only in DR WEA Mitregi:

The PRINCELING moves one step in any of the 3 forward radial directions.

+=

The CANNONBALL differs from the Wing, the ARROWHEAD from the Mitre, and their compound the TANKTURRET from the Princess, in that capturing moves (or in a Korean-style version all moves) require exactly one intervening piece, which is of either army and not itself captured by the move.

Forward-only pieces are promoted as follows: Wing/Helm/Cannonball to GOLDGENERAL, which moves one step in any of the 4 orthogonal and 2 forward diagonal directions; Mitre/Hump/Arrowhead to SILVERGENERAL, which moves one step in any of the 4 diagonal and 1 forward orthogonal directions; and Princess/Handyman/Princeling/Tankturret to PRINCE, which moves like the King but may be captured.

Rules

There is no initial double-step move or En Passant.

Pawns crossing the River are promoted to Wazirs, remaining Wazirs should they retreat. A Wazir ending a move on either army's second rank (the back rank of the original 10x10 board) may be promoted to a stronger symmetric piece captured by the enemy, if there is one.

Other forward-only pieces may be promoted on ending a move anywhere in the ranks of the enemy camp, which as in Shogi occupy a third of the board. If they have no further moves unpromoted, promotion is compulsory.

A player capturing an enemy forward-only piece may reintroduce it as one of their own, unpromoted and on a rank where promotion would not be compulsory, in place of a normal move.

Castling requires that the King has not left the middle two files, the Rook involved has not left its own and the Knight file, neither has left the second and third ranks, and both are on the same rank with no intervening piece. They move towards each other within that rank, the King to the Bishop file and the Rook to the Camel file. The King may not Castle into/out of/through check or bare facing.

A player may not end a move with:
1 the King under threat by another piece;
2 the King on the enemy side of the River;
3 the King sharing a file or diagonal with the enemy King with no intervening pieces;
4 the enemy having 4 Princes on the board in WEA Mitregi or 8 in DR WEA Mitregi;
5 half or more of certain of their pieces beyond the River. These pieces are the King, Queen, Gnu, Tank, Zebu, Guru, Princess, Handyman, Princeling, Tankturret, and any Princes. Pieces off the board are not counted. A player starting a move in situation:
1 may remedy it by moving the King, capturing the Checking piece, blocking or unblocking to leave the wrong number of intervening pieces;
2 is impossible as it would require ending their previous move in that position;
3 is impossible as it would require the enemy ending a move in that position;
4 may remedy it by capturing an enemy Prince;
5 may remedy it by withdrawing a relevant piece, reintroducing a Princess/Handyman/Princeling/Tankturret on their own side of the River, or promoting a Wazir to Queen/Gnu/Tank/Zebu/Guru in their own camp. A player who cannot avoid ending their move in such a situation loses if they are already in one, and draws if they are not.

Notes

I have since thought of a few alternative fourth and fifth groups. One possibility is pieces from two 4 linepiece Fusion variants - any two out of Gryphon+Anchorite=Gorgon, Girlscout+Boyscout=Doublescout, and Wolf+Fox=Werewolf - although the Gryphon and Anchorite are not strictly speaking duals as neither is colourbound. Any one of the three groups could be added to the main fourth and fifth groups - or all three used in place of the three forward-only piece groups - for a dense-rim variant.

This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.